Call for TB screening of immigrants

Cases of tuberculosis in the UK are rising despite government efforts to curb a disease synonymous with mass death in Victorian times.

Doctors' leaders are calling for improved efforts to screen immigrants from the Indian and African continents for signs of TB, and more widespread use of the vaccine, BCG, in infants.

Two new outbreaks, in Luton and Cardiff, have prompted concern that public health officials are failing to get to grips with the disease. In Luton 71 pupils at Southfield junior school have been affected, while four children who attended a drop-in centre in the Ely area of the Welsh capital have also been diagnosed.

Vivienne Nathanson, the British Medical Association head of science and ethics, said the re-emergence of TB was so serious that ministers should consider the mandatory immunisation of all school children with the BCG jab, and that GPs should offer screening to new patients who come from parts of the world where the disease is common, including Eastern Europe.

Dr Mayur Lakhani, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said: 'My sense is that the health community has taken its eye off the ball a bit in relation to TB. We shouldn't think that this is a disease of the past.'

Lakhani said primary care trusts, which deliver healthcare in local areas, must do more to ensure that people coming to live in the UK from high-risk countries were screened when they arrived at an airport or port or when they registered with a GP. Students coming to Britain should also be tested.